Jewelry with an illuminating light to enhance the appearance of a decorative object, such as a precious stone or the like, have been created in various shapes, forms, and styles, but in the past such jewelry has been mostly targeted to a consumer market comprising costume or low-cost jewelry. This is primarily because the energy source for the lights is usually provided by one or more batteries which are bulky and not easy to incorporate into a jewelry piece.
One challenge in designing aesthetically attractive illuminated jewelry is the placement of the battery. In one conventional design, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,965 a necklace is formed from a loop of insulated wire having a battery positioned at a fixed location within a first discontinuity of the wire and a light source located at a second discontinuity. In another conventional design, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,109, a battery cell is mounted in a threaded cap housing that is screwed on to an ornament housing that contains the light emitting diode. These prior illuminated jewelry designs tend to be bulky or place significant restrictions on the structure of the jewelry design.
Contemporary fashion designers are constantly seeking for ways to accentuate the beauty and brightness of jewelry or otherwise make stones such as quartz more visually appealing. As fashion trends continue to evolve rapidly from year to year, the fashion industry must be creative to come up with new and fresh jewelry designs, colors, and shapes in order to provide new jewelry products. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need to create new and different structural designs of illuminated jewelry. Decorative objects contemplated as being mounted on the jewelry housing include diamonds, semi-precious stones such as quartz, and pearls. There is a further need for jewelry targeted to a higher end market wherein key structural constraints and limitations of prior art generally aimed at low end and costume jewelry have been eliminated.